Become a citizen scientist and research prosperity in your local area

One great way is to conduct your own research project, and share your findings with your community and the policy-makers who make the decisions that affect your area.

Often, policy-makers lack the community-level information they need to make informed decisions about urban planning and service provision. Many want to gain insights from the communities their policies are affecting. This kind of community-led and community-focused information would help them to understand what helps some people to thrive, while others struggle to get by.

The Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at UCL has been working with citizen scientists in East London, to find out what prosperity means to local communities, and to measure levels of prosperity. Citizen scientists are trained in research skills and conduct interviews with policy-makers, community leaders and residents in the research sites. They use their own knowledge of the local area to inform the research project, and decide how we conduct research and who we speak to with the rest of the team. You can find out more about the work we’ve been doing by visiting the IGP’s website, and our dedicated website for our East London work.

You can find out about opportunities to work as a citizen scientist in East London by signing up to the IGP’s mailing list:

We also work with London councils, many of which have paid opportunities for citizen scientists (called community researchers) in their teams. Keep an eye open for opportunities in your local area.